“Battery Park at Night”

Here is lower Manhattan circa 1939, lit by passing ships, park street lamps, and moonlight reflecting off the water. The building in the center is Castle Garden, home of the New York Aquarium (now at Coney Island) from 1896 to 1941.

Castle Garden was a popular spot in the 1800s. “Swedish Nightingale” Jenny Lind performed there in 1850. It was also New York City’s first immigration depot (before Ellis Island was built), and the place where Samuel Morse demonstrated his wireless telegraph in 1842.